|
A
look at Patrick Proctor
Designer: Brigade Combat Team
I
am Captain Patrick Proctor.
When I’m not designing wargames, I’m an
active duty artillery officer in the U.S. Army,
stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
In my current job, I plan the artillery fires for
an Infantry Battalion.
Before I came here, I was stationed at Fort Hood,
Texas, with the 1st Cavalry Division.
I saw a lot of field time, both at Fort Hood and
at the National Training Center, at Fort Irwin,
California.
This
whole story starts three years ago, with my frustration
with the “mainstream” wargame industry.
I
saw, on one side, the personal computer wargames at the
time. They were flashy, had a lot of bells and whistles,
and sometimes the vehicles looked like real equipment.
But they really had no basis in fact. One player was
asked to control the actions of a hundred vehicles in
real time. The vehicles had no intelligent responses.
Enemy units just kind of “came at you” in no
particular order. Even the best of them left something
out or got something wrong.
Then,
on the other hand, there were the tactical computer
simulations used by the Army. They were intimately
detailed, used real equipment, and were fought on real
terrain. But the interfaces were abominable. Soldiers
had to train for days just to learn to use them. They
were large and unwieldy, prone to crashing.
I
knew that I could fuse these two worlds into an
excellent wargame.
I dove in with both feet and started programming.
The fruit of my labor is BCT:
Brigade Combat Team. It is the most realistic
tactical simulation in computer wargaming. However, it
retains the playability of those "real time"
wargames that dominate the marketplace. It has all of
the things that I
wanted from a wargame, based on my experiences as an
artilleryman in the U.S. Army.
I
hope that you will enjoy BCT.
Keep an eye out for some of our upcoming releases. We
are now hard at work on BCT
Expansion Pack 2.
Soon after its release, we hope to release BCT
Construction Set, a scenario editor for BCT:
Brigade Combat Team. Another project currently
underway is Armored Task Force, a
company/task force-level simulator which focuses more on
fighting individual vehicles. It has a much wider range
of vehicles, from WWII era to giant robots of the far
future. |
|
Welcome
the the Modern Battlefield soldier, do you have what it takes to
command today's armed forces?
Armored
Task Force
represents a whole new approach to wargaming. We have
modeled the entire battlefield, practically down to the bolts on
the road wheels! Here is a look at some of the things you can
expect to see in the final release:
-
Terrain.
We've started where we left off with adding even more detail to the most
detailed terrain ever included in a wargame. Maps are not
abstract hexes or grids, but a continues elevation terrain
model, complete with 3D representations of special terrain
like trees, roads, and buildings.
-
Single
vehicle resolution. You aren't fighting platoons
or sections anymore. Each icon on the map represents a
single vehicle, right down to chassis and turret facing.
These are real, physical objects, with more detailed
modeling than any wargame
ever created!
-
Vehicle
Smoke. Smoke isn't just the purview of artillery
and smoke generators any more. Many vehicles carry their own
smoke grenade systems. Your dismounts will pop smoke and try
to disengage. HE (high explosive) fire missions and
destroyed
vehicles will produce smoke, too.
-
Weather.
Day and night aren't the only elements you will have to
contend with. rain, fog, snow, and a host of other
conditions will also plague your units. And their not on/off
effects either. It can be raining on one part of the map
while another is dry.
Another innovation we have included in
Armored Task Force is the improved Artificial
Intelligence engine. You thought was hard? Well you haven't seen nothin' yet.
-
Friendly
AI. Armored Task Force
features "layered" friendly AI support. You can
tell a company formation, "Attack here!". Or you
can tell it, "Attack here, along this route, in this
formation". Or you can tell it "Attack here, along
this route, in this formation, setting support by fire
positions here, with these units..." Well, you get the
idea. You concentrate on the big picture and let Armored
Task Force handle the details.
-
Enemy
AI. The enemy has a new, "big picture engine",
which makes tactical decisions about the implementation of
his combat power based on what he sees about your battle
plan. We're talking decision point tactics here, just like
the Russians use!
-
Flexible
command levels. Fight your force at whatever
level you choose. Give orders to companies and watch them
execute or manage the movement of individual vehicles. It's
up to you. Armored Task Force allows you to fight the
fight at the level you want.
-
Adjacent
Units. When we tell you that your company must
cut the breach for the battalion attack, we mean it! The
battalion will REALLY be rolling up behind you. Your victory
conditions will depend on how many of THEM make it through.
-
Civilians
on the Battlefield. Those dirty Krasnovians have
occupied a village, but you can't just pound them with
artillery, because it is full of civilians. your victory
conditions are tied to their survival, too.
|
